Adrian Haslet. Today I am grateful for Adrian Haslet. I don’t know her. I have never met her. But man, she inspires me on the daily. She was at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon. She lost her left leg below the knee in the horrific domestic terrorist attack that changed my city 210 yards from the finish line. She was (and still is) a ballroom dancer. But now she is also an amputee advocate, motivational speaker, an adventurer, a dog lover, a can-fucking-do boss, and a runner. Yup, a runner. And she was supposed to run today’s Boston Marathon, except only a few weeks ago she badly sprained her ankle and all her training went down the tubes faster she could say, “hand me my leg.”

I follow Adrian on Instagram. I’m not even really sure how I found her or why I began following her, I’m just glad I did, because I’m not sure there is a more positive person roaming the earth. And damn, there’s almost nothing I love more, except maybe potato chips. See, being positive isn’t my native language, I have to work at it. But Adrian, she is a force of YES, a human who laughs in the face of “you can’t.” And while she did concede to not being able to run Boston this year, she wasn’t all down in the dumps, she just started to plan for next year.

So, today, the 125th Boston Marathon, gratitude to the unstoppable, and did I mention very stylish, Adrian Haslet. She is my idea of awesomeness in human form. She is exactly what they mean when they say “Boston Strong.”

The other day a good friend got me tickets to Boston’s Premiere of No Time to Die, the new 007 movie. There were premieres at the same time in Chicago, LA, and London, where Kate, Wills, Charles and Camilla all were, so basically I saw the movie with the Royal fam, right?

Anyway, I’d never seen a James Bond film before! I know, you’re saying WHA? I’m surprised nobody deported me, or cancelled my citizenship for never having watched this iconic franchise. In general it’s just not my jam, you know, all that violence and all those lame jokes, but guess what — I LOVED IT!

A few years ago, on a yoga trip, we were in Matera, Italy, a UNESCO heritage site and one of the most, if not the most, incredible places I’ve ever been, when we saw cranes rising above the ancient city, only to find out they were shooting this very Bond flick. Right then and there, I thought, I gotta see that movie.

• 

• 

It took two years to get the movie out because of Covid, but last week on a Weds. at 3:00, while Princess Kate donned a glam and sparkly number, I donned my best jeans and a raincoat, because it was pouring and amid no pomp and circumstance, went to the AMC theater on the Boston Common to see 10 minutes of magical Matera in the opening scene car chase. It was brilliant!

Gratitude to my friend Cid for nabbing me the ticks, but also to trying something new. I’m actually going to make a point of having myself a little James Bond-a-thon. I mean, Matera might have lured me to see the movie, but Daniel Craig did the rest.